Portable Wii Laptop uses a hard drive instead of DVDs

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Given the nature of the Wiimote and the requirements of the sensor bar, the NintendoWii seems, on the surface of things, even less moddable into a portable device than the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360… but where there’s a will, there’s a way.

ShockSlayer’s ZNWii DIY Wii Laptop might not be the most aesthetically pleasing portable mod job console we’ve ever seen, but the functionality’s certainly sound. Stripping the Nintendo Wii of its built-in DVD drive to save space, ShockSlayer’s Wii Laptop instead uses game “backup” software to load all of its games directly from an internal hard drive.

Otherwise, we’re looking at a lot of the standard features of a portable console, including a flip-up display (with built-in sensor bar, natch) and a reliance upon an internal, rechargeable power pack to allow it to be played even away from a mains. It even manages some GameCube support by grafting the GameCube control ports right into the Wii instead of the normal ports.

Pretty neat stuff. Of course, Nintendo won’t be happy here, given the Wii Laptop’s reliance upon a SunDriver chip in order to eschew the requirement of a built-in DVD drive, but we can still appreciate ingenious work when we see it.

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It has searching at a lot of the accepted appearance of a carriage able console, including a flip-up affectation and a assurance aloft an internal, rechargeable ability backpack to acquiesce it to be played.